In the sixties, the Dutch society became more secularized and
the pillars
faded, and voters began to move away from the three
Christian-Democratic parties. In 1963 the three parties
held 51% of the vote, whilst in 1972 they held only 32%.
This decline forced the three parties to work closer together. In
1967 the Group of Eighteen was formed: it was a think-tank of six
prominent politicians per party that planned the future cooperation
of the three parties. In 1968 the three political leaders of the
parties (Norbert Schmelzer (KVP), Barend
Biesheuvel (ARP) and Jur Mellema (CHU) made a public
appearance, stating that the three parties would continue to work
together. This caused progressive forces within the three parties,
especially the ARP and KVP to regret their political affiliation.
In 1968 they founded the Political Party of
Radicals, a leftwing party that sought cooperation with the
social-democratic Labour
Party (PvdA). Locally and provincially however the three
parties had long cooperated well, in some areas they formed one
Christian-Democratic parliamentary party and proposed one list of
candidates. In 1971 the three parties
presented a common political program, which lay the foundation for
the Biesheuvel
cabinets.

After the disastrous elections of 1972 the cooperation was given
new momentum. Piet
Steenkamp, a member of the House of
Representatives for the KVP was appointed chairman of a council
which was to lay the foundation for a federation of the three
parties, and provide a common manifesto of principles. In 1973 this
federation was officially formed, with Steenkamp as chairperson.
The cooperation was frustrated by the formation of the cabinet Den Uyl,
established by the leader of the social-democratic PvdA and Prime
Minister of the Netherlands Joop den Uyl. Den Uyl refused to allow
members of the CHU in the cabinet that he would lead. This led to a
situation where the CHU, ARP and KVP formed a federation and had
one parliamentary party in both houses of
parliament, but only the KVP and ARP supplied ministers and junior
ministers. The cabinet Den Uyl was riddled with political and
personal conflicts. Another issue that split the three parties was
the place the Bible would take
in the new party.

1977–1994

In 1977 the parties presented
a common list at the parliamentary elections. The KVP minister of Justice, Dries van Agt, was
the top candidate. In the election campaign he made clear the CDA
was a centrist party, that would not lean to the left or to the
right. The three parties were able to stabilize their proportion of
the vote. The election result forced Van Agt to start talks with
Den Uyl. The animosity between Van Agt, who had been
vice-prime-minister in the cabinet Den Uyl, and Den Uyl, frustrated
the talks. After more than 300 days of negotiations, they finally
officially failed, and Van Agt was able to negotiate a cabinet with
the conservative liberal VVD. The Cabinet Van Agt-I had a
very narrow majority. The unexpected cabinet with the VVD led to
split within the newly founded CDA between more progressive and
more conservative members. The progressives remained within the
party, and were known as loyalists. On October 11, 1980, the three
original parties ceased to exist and the CDA was founded as a
unitary party. After the elections of 1981, the VVD and the CDA
had lost their majority, and the CDA was forced to cooperate with
the PvdA. Van Agt became prime-minister and Den Uyl became
vice-prime-minister. The cabinet was troubled by
ideological and personal conflicts, and fell after one year.

After the 1982 elections, a CDA/VVD
cabinet was supported by
a majority in parliament. The new CDA leader, Ruud Lubbers, set an
ambitious reform program in motion, which included budget cuts,
reform of the old age and disability pensions and liberalization of
public services. Lubbers won the 1986 and 1989 elections, and he was
not only supported by Christians, but also by non-religious people.
In 1989 however, although the CDA had won the elections, they were
unable to get a majority with their coalition partner, the VVD. The
CDA was forced to cooperate with the PvdA. In the third cabinet Lubbers,
the ambitious reform project was continued, with some adaptations
and protests from the PvdA.

1994–present

The 1994 elections were
fraught with problems for the CDA: personal conflicts between
prime-minister Lubbers and Lijsttrekker Eelco Brinkman, a lack of
support for the reforms of old age and disability pensions, and the
perceived arrogance of the CDA caused a dramatic defeat at the
polls. A new government was formed without any Christian-democratic
ministers for the first time since 1918. The CDA was confined to
the opposition. The party was marred by subsequent internal battles
over leadership. The party also reflected on its principals: the
party began to orient itself more toward communitarian
ideals.

During the tumultuous 2002 elections,
which saw the murder of Pim Fortuyn, many people voted for the CDA,
hoping that this party could bring some stability to Dutch
politics. The CDA led the Balkenende
coalition, which included the VVD and the LPF. This
cabinet fell due to internal struggles within the LPF. After the 2003 elections, the
Christian Democrats were forced to begin cabinet negotiations with
the PvdA. Personal animosity between Balkenende and the leader of
the PvdA, Bos,
frustrated these negotiations. Balkenende eventually formed a
coalition with the conservative and progressive liberals.
The coalition proposed an ambitious program of reforms, including
more restrictive immigration laws, democratization
of political institutions and reforms of the system of social security
and labour laws.

After the 2006 elections the CDA
changed their course radically: they formed a new cabinet still led by Balkenende, but now
with the social-democratic PvdA and the social-Christian ChristianUnion.
The cabinet's policy currently is more progressive, entailing
increased government spending funded by higher taxes.[2]

Ideology and
issues

The CDA is a Christian-democratic party, but the
Bible is only seen as a source of inspiration for individual
members of parliament. The party also has Jewish, Muslim and Hindu members of parliament, and it favors the
integration of minorities into Dutch culture.

The party has four main ideals: shared responsibility, stewardship, justice and solidarity. Shared
responsibility refers to the way society should be organized: not
one organization should control all society, instead the state, the market, and social institutions, like churches and unions should work together. This is called
sphere
sovereignty, a core concept of Protestant political philosophy.
Furthermore, this refers to the way the state should be organized.
Not one level of the state should have total control, instead
responsibility should be shared between local, provincial, national and
European
government. This is called subsidiarity in Catholic political
thought. With stewardship the Christian-democrats refer to the way
we should treat our planet: the Earth is a gift from God. Therefore
we should try to preserve our environment.

Members of
the Senate

Members of the European
Parliament

2009 – 5

2004 – 7

1999 – 9

1994 – 10

1989 – 10

1984 – 8

1979 – 10

Local and provincial
government

By far, the CDA has the most members of municipal and provincial
councils in the Netherlands. Furthermore, it cooperates in most
municipal and provincial governments. 135 out of the 414 Dutch
mayors are members of the CDA.

Electorate

The CDA is mainly supported by religious voters, both Catholics
and Protestants. These tend to live in rural areas and tend to be elderly. In
some periods, however, the CDA has functioned as a centre party,
attracting people from all classes and religions.

Geographically, the CDA is particularly strong in the provinces
of North
Brabant, Limburg and Overijssel and in the Veluwe and the Westland areas. In the 2006
elections the CDA received the highest percentage of votes in the
municipality of Tubbergen, Overijssel (66,59% of the vote).
The CDA is weaker in the four major cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam,
The Hague and Utrecht) and in Groningen and Drenthe.

Organization

Organization

The CDA has 69 560 members in 520 municipals branches. Its
current chairperson is Peter van Heeswijk.

Linked
organizations

The youth movement of the CDA is the Christian-Democratic Youth
Appeal (CDJA, Christen-Democratische Jongeren Appèl ). The CDA
publishes the CDA-magazine monthly, and its scientific bureau
publishes the Christian Democratic Explorations
(Christen-Democratische Verkenningen).

As an effect of pillarization, the CDA still has many
personal and ideological ties with religious organizations, such as
the broadcasting societies KRO and NCRV, the paper Trouw, the employers organizations NCW and the union CNV.

International
organizations

International comparison

As a large Christian-democratic party the CDA is comparable to
other European Christian-democratic parties as the German CDU. It is the
Netherlands' largest rightwing party, but is more centrist than the
British Conservatives.